The US is likely to sanction Gebran Bassil today, the Wall Street Journal reports. (Reuters/Mohammad Azakir)
The Wall Street Journal reports that the US is likely to impose sanctions on Gebran Bassil today for ties to Hezbollah. The move would come as part of intensifying US sanctions against Iran and its allies. In September, the Treasury Department sanctioned former ministers Ali Hassan Khalil of the Amal Movement and Youssef Fenianos of the Marada Movement for alleged corruption and assisting Hezbollah. (Most Hezbollah politicians remain untouched.) The sanctions on Bassil, the leader of the Free Patriotic Movement, are likely to “blow up” efforts by Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri to form a government, one source told the newspaper.
A man set himself on fire in front of the Beirut headquarters of the UN’s refugee agency. UNHCR officials confirmed that the man was a registered Syrian refugee and said that security outside the building had extinguished the flames. The man was taken first to Rafik Hariri University Hospital, where he was stabilized, before being transported to Al-Salam Hospital in Tripoli, which specializes in treating severe burn cases. It was not clear Thursday what the man’s grievance was, but Syrians have been protesting regularly in front of the UN office decrying aid cuts, failure to pay for medical treatment, and lack of follow-up on their cases, and have been calling for resettlement outside of Lebanon. A small group of protesters gathered again Thursday afternoon in solidarity with the injured man.
Officials continued to point fingers and deny culpability over thousands of tons of flour donated to Lebanon by Iraq that were exposed to moisture amid this week’s rainstorms after being stored at the Sports City stadium in Ghobeiri. The Ghobeiri municipality claimed Thursday that a team of food safety experts were prevented from inspecting the flour at the order of caretaker Economy Minister Raoul Nahme, which Nehme denied. The minister has also denied that any significant quantities of flour were damaged, saying that the bags shown in photos posted by the municipality — which were piled in a dank basement hallways with water on the ground — had been damaged in transit, and the remaining 7,000 tons awaiting distribution were safely stored. Meanwhile, a group of lawyers filed a complaint with the financial prosecutor’s office against anyone involved in improperly storing the flour for “professional negligence.”
The famous grain silos that were damaged in the Beirut port explosion must be demolished, Nehme said Thursday, noting that the foundations are cracked, putting them at risk of collapse. The silos, which had the capacity to store 100,000 tons of grain, were not full at the time of the explosion; nevertheless, some 15,000 tons of wheat and 24,000 tons of corn were destroyed. The silos were widely credited with absorbing a portion of the shock from the blast, thus shielding the west half of the city from what could have been more devastating damage. The silos have since become the most visible symbol of the explosion, and some have floated the idea of turning them into a monument to the blast’s victims.
Caretaker Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni said that the deadline for the central bank to hand over documents to auditors has been extended by three months. BDL had failed to meet this week’s deadline to turn over the documents to consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal for a forensic audit, claiming that it was prohibited by the country’s banking secrecy law from turning them over. Caretaker Justice Minister Marie-Claude Najm, for her part, has maintained that the banking secrecy law does not cover public funds — a stance that has been backed up by multiple legal and financial experts. At a press conference Thursday, Najm said she also does not believe that the finance minister has the authority to extend a deadline that was set by the cabinet.
Judges upheld the arrest of Customs chief Badri Daher over his alleged request to lift a travel ban on a Saudi prince who was caught smuggling captagon out of Lebanon in 2015 and later managed to leave the country without paying a multimillion dollar fine. Daher's lawyer had appealed the arrest, which was ordered by Judge Charbel Bou Samra on Tuesday. Daher’s alleged involvement in the prince’s escape came out after he was detained in connection with a separate investigation into the Beirut port explosion.
A record 2,089 people tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, raising the number of active cases to 42,683, while seven people died, bringing the number of deaths to 683. Meanwhile, it remains unclear whether authorities will decide to impose the countrywide two-week lockdown that some have called for in place of the localized lockdowns that have been in place in recent weeks. Health officials have repeatedly warned that more must be done to prevent the spread of the pandemic, which threatens to overwhelm hospitals.